“The perception of beauty is a moral test.” – Henry David Thoreau
I need ALL of you to help me understand this one. Why is this statement true? Or, if you don’t think it is, why isn’t it?
Drawing © 2022 Marty Coleman | napkindad.com
“Not beauty but respectability is only skin deep.” – anonymous
At first I didn’t get this idea, so I tried to come up with something that had outer beauty but would somehow deny respectability at the same time. A hairy underarm on a beautiful woman seemed the perfect illustration.
The surface styles and trends of an season, an era or a culture are often seen as being the same as respectability. What is on the surface is what others see and judgments are made based on that. The more critical of judgments is not the one deciding if someone is beautiful, but if someone is respectable.
For example, if an American sorority is picking between two girls at rush, and there is the plain one with shaved underarms or the beautiful one with unshaved underarms, which one do you think they will pick?
I predict they will pick the plain one. Why? Because they care more about surface respectability than beauty when it comes down to it.
How do you judge in this same way? How do you combat this type of judgment? Or is it valid to do so?
Drawing © 2022 Marty Coleman | napkindad.com
“A religion without mystery is a temple without God.” – Robert Hall
What is so wonderful about a mystery? Isn’t the fun of a mystery being able to figure it out? Do we want to cut off certain areas of exploration by saying ‘it’s a mystery’ and be done with it? I don’t think so, at least I know I don’t.
If you become aware of some ‘truth’ and purposely avoid recognizing it on a daily basis for the benefit of keeping your ‘mystery’ alive, then you are cheating yourself of growth. An example might be purposely not reading any articles or books on science because you prefer to hold on to the ‘mystery’ of how the universe works, small and large. You think that by remaining ignorant the ‘mystery’ can continue to exist.
The problem, of course, is that your purposeful ignorance doesn’t allow anything to continue except your ignorance. Truths are still discovered, new ideas about life are still put forth and explored, new ways of viewing the human experience are still brought forth AND new mysteries continue to enthrall.
But you, if you are fearful of learning those things, don’t get to find new truths OR new mysteries. You just get to remain ignorant and boring. Don’t fear your religion, whatever it is, running out of mysteries, it won’t. The more you learn the more mysteries you will have to enjoy.
Drawing © 2022 Marty Coleman | napkindad.com
“By perseverance the snail reached the ark.” – Charles Spurgeon
And by perseverance you will reach your goal as well. Who has accomplished anything immediately, the moment they set out to accomplish it? As a matter of fact, most of the time when fame or glory for something comes too quickly for someone, they falter in its light because they feel guilty for not having worked hard enough or long enough to achieve their goal. They don’t feel like they deserve it. And they have to work hard to prove to themselves and others that, while they didn’t deserve it initially, they will earn it after the fact.
The key in all this is to understand when to persevere and when to give up. Sometimes giving up is the wise thing to do. I tried for 8 years to get a full-time college level teaching job in art during the 80s and 90s in California. At year 9 I gave up and retrained myself to be a computer artist, moved to Oklahoma to take an entry level job as a jr. illustrator and animator. Two years later I was the Art Director and Producer of a series of educational CDroms for kids at that same company. I had to give up on one dream so I could find the level of success, accomplishment and financial support I needed for myself and my family. In the meanwhile though I never stopped being the one thing I have always been, that is an artist. The dimensions and media changed, but not the ideas or the passion.
So, here are a series of questions to help you reach the ark, or to decide if you even want to get on that particular ark.
Answer those questions and you will have a much better grip on where you are in your efforts and if they have a chance to succeed.
Drawing © 2022 Marty Coleman | napkindad.com
“A Book is a Mirror: If An Ass Peers Into It, You Can’t Expect An Apostle To Look Out.” – Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
I chose this quote not because I believed it, but because I questioned it. I understand the idea, but it does seem to render the book sterile and the reader static. That person who is closed up, shut off, wrapped up in what they already think about life, then yes, the book is unlikely to reflect anything new.
But the person who is open, who is unafraid to be changed for the better by the world, that person isn’t looking in a static mirror, but into a magic mirror. The mirrored book, if it is good, will reflect back a greater person, a wiser person, a more interesting and curious person.
Do you have a book that has done that for you? What is it?
Drawing 2022 Marty Coleman | napkindad.com
“No Man Can Think Clearly When His Fists Are Clenched.” – George Jean Nathan
Anger is most often an enemy of thought. It can be used deliberately to engender thought in others, like from a pulpit or a lecturn. But it is more often not ‘used’ in any deliberate way, or rather, in any well thought out way.
If you are angry today, unclench your fist, your emotions, your mind, just for a minute. You won’t have to give up your right to be angry a moment later,you can go back to it if you want. You aren’t relinquishing your right to be have anger as an avenue and as a weapon. You can use it if you want, right now or later. But if you practice letting go of it, you might find you don’t need it, much like an addict realizes at some defining moment they can get along with out the cigarette or drink. Maybe you can too. Try it, you have nothing to lose but your anger.
Drawing © 2022 Marty Coleman | napkindad.com
“We Are Not The Red States, We Are Not The Blue States, We are The United States Of America!” – President Obama
All who are behind Obama, keep it up. All who are not or are holding back, give him, and this country, the benefit of the doubt. Hope the best, be the best. Be purple, not red or blue, ok?
Drawing © 2022 Marty Coleman | napkindad.com
“We may have all come on different ships, but we are in the same boat now.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.
In honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and in anticipation of the Inauguration of Barack Obama I offer this truth.
It does NOT matter what boat you or your ancestors came on. It does NOT matter if the boat was named Mayflower and arrived 389 years ago from England or if it was named Diego and arrived 28 years ago from Cuba.
It does NOT matter if they didn’t take a boat, but walked across the land bridge from Siberia over 10,000 years ago.
What matters is the boat you are in NOW. All I know is that I share that boat with you. I want it to be a peaceful, prosperous, creative, purposeful and fun journey. But above all I want it to be filled with love.
Read MLK, Jr’s quotes enough and you see that his guiding principle was, first and foremost, love.
Let’s let that be ours as well.
Drawing © 2022 Marty Coleman | napkindad.com
“Imagination rules over two thirds of the universe, the past and the future, while reality is confined to the present.” – John Paul Richter
I find many people treat the future as more real than the present. They let it rule their lives by the anxiety and fear that not knowing what it will bring instills in them.
But it is just as legitimate to imagine a perfectly fine future as it is to imagine a depressing one. Either way you are thinking about possibilities not true realities so why not have your brain filled with what you want in the future instead of what you fear?
Drawing © 2022 Marty Coleman | napkindad.com
“There is a mortgage for every castle in the air.” – anonymous
So sayeth the sign saying GO. The sign saying STOP does not sayeth thus, because STOP does not imagine any castles. GO imagines and believes even while being rooted on the earth. It is stationary like STOP. It is in one locale like STOP. But it is always telling those who come upon it at the crossroads to GO, because it knows the mortgage is paid, on earth and in the sky, by driving on.
Drawing © 2022 Marty Coleman | napkindad.com
